The world's 2nd-richest man, Louis Vuitton's CEO, sold his private jet after people started tracking it on Twitter: 'No one can see where I go'

Grace Kay
Mon, October 17, 2022 

LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault on a private jet on October 11, 2004.Marc DEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Bernard Arnault said LVMH sold its private jet after Twitter accounts started tracking it.

The billionaire said he'd started renting private aircraft for his trips instead.

Arnault is one of several billionaires to express concern over jet tracking on social media.

Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, said on Monday that the luxury-goods company sold its private jet following people's attempts to track the aircraft on social media.

The 73-year-old billionaire said he'd started renting private planes instead. He made the announcement an interview with Radio Classique, which was first reported by Bloomberg. The radio station is owned by LVMH.

"Indeed, with all these stories, the group had a plane and we sold it," Arnault said, according to a Bloomberg translation. "The result now is that no one can see where I go because I rent planes when I use private planes."

Multiple Twitter accounts that track and share publicly available flight data have sprung up over the past year — publicizing the travel activity of people such as Elon Musk and Taylor Swift. Two of the top accounts that track the Louis Vuitton cofounder's flights are @i_fly_Bernard and @laviondebernard. The accounts have a combined following of nearly 100,000 and were both created over the past six months.

Arnault appears to have made the switch to renting jets several weeks ago. In September, @laviondebernard tweeted about the billionaire's lack of recent flight data after noting several weeks earlier that LVMH had de-registered its plane in France.

"Still no word from either Bernard Arnault or LVMH on the subject of private jets," the account tweeted on September 10, according to a Bloomberg translation of the tweet.

 "So Bernard, are you hiding?"

Arnault is the second-wealthiest man — surpassing even the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — with an estimated net worth of $133 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index's estimate. He is the CEO, cofounder, and chair of LVMH and has amassed a luxury-goods empire that includes major names like Tiffany & Co., TAG Heur, and Dom Pérignon.

On Monday, Arnault's son Antoine Arnault defended the company's use of a private jet after his father faced criticism from French media outlets over the jet's influence on carbon emissions. The younger Arnault said a private plane gave executives an edge in the race to be first to a new product or deal.

"Our industry is hypercompetitive," the son said on a TV show, according to an Insider translation. "We haven't found anything better than a private plane to win that race every day and be just a small step ahead of our competitors."

Bernard Arnault is not the only billionaire to come under scrutiny in recent months for private-jet usage. In July, critics slammed Swift after she and her jet topped a list of those causing major carbon emissions. At the time, spokespeople for the music star said the "jet is regularly loaned out to other individuals."

Other public figures have expressed safety concerns over the sharing of flight data on social media. Earlier this year, Musk offered $5,000 to the person behind a Twitter account that tracked his travel, asking the Twitter user to shut it down. He failed to get the account shut down.

"I don't love the idea of being shot by a nutcase," Musk said in a text about the issue, Protocol reported.

Meanwhile, the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg switched his aircraft after an account started tracking his plane, and the billionaire investor Mark Cuban brokered a deal with a man who tracked and shared his flight data by offering him business advice in exchange for deleting the account.

Translation by Marianne Guenot.

Second Richest Man Sells Jet So People on Twitter Won't Track Him Anymore

Kyle Barr Mon, October 17, 2022 

Bernard Arnault Smiling in front of a microphone

Bernard Arnault, as the world’s second richest man, has become the main target for the campaign against needless private jet trips in France.

Billionaires do seem to love the freedom of the skies, especially when they’re not crammed in with all the riff raff on any public flight. Though at the same time, the uber rich don’t enjoy other people criticizing them for routinely taking short jaunts on private jets while producing hundreds of tons of CO2 in the process.

Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury brand LVMH—known for expensive labels like Louis Vuitton—is the world’s second-richest man according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. He currently clocks in at a net worth of $133 billion, beating out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ paltry $130 billion. He’s also been harangued on Twitter for his consistent use of private jets. French accounts that use planes’ transponder signals and publicly accessible information have tracked Arnault’s and other rich folks’ use of private jets to reveal just how much wasteful flying time is used by the world’s wealthiest.

In September, the Twitter account laviodebernard (Bernard’s Plane) wrote that Arnault’s plane had been de-registered in France. The account wrote “The LVMH private jet has not been registered in France since September 1, 2022. Still no word from Bernard Arnault or LVMH on the subject of private jets. So Bernard, are we hiding?”

Apparently, that’s just what Arnault has been doing. On the LVMH-owned podcast released Monday, Arnault admitted that the LVMH group “had a plane, and we sold it.” He added: “The result now is that no one can see where I go because I rent planes when I use private planes.”

LVMH did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment. The topic of taxing the country’s richest for using private jets has been seen favorably by French lawmakers and some officials like environmental minister Christophe Bechu.

Antoine Arnault, the second scion of the world’s second richest man, a LVMH board member and director of communications for Louis Vuitton, also said during the podcast that other people knowing where their company jet is could give competitors an edge. He also told French news channel 5’s à Vous last week “This plane is a work tool.” As translated by Bloomberg, the younger Arnault added that the company sold the plane over the summer.

Of course, the issue doesn’t just have to do with Arnault alone. Another one of these critical Twitter accounts I Fly Bernard recently pointed out that millionaires’ private planes coming from France have emitted 203 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere through over 48 hours of flights in September alone. On Sept. 18 the account pointed out that the French businessman and CEO of Kering François-Henri Pinault, flew from Venice to Paris, then back to Venice all in one day, cheekily writing “maybe a forgotten phone charger at the hotel?”

The world richest man, Elon Musk, also has a penchant for using his private plane quite an obscene amount. Earlier this year, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO came under fire when transponder signals showed he had flown his $70 million private Gulfstream jet just nine minutes from San Jose to San Francisco.

The billionaire reportedly proposed to buy one of the accounts tracking his jet, called @ElonJet. Musk asked Jack Sweeney, the young man who runs the bot-tracking Twitter account, to take down the account calling it a “security risk.” He even offered to buy the account for a measly $5,000, according to Twitter DMs seen by Protocol. Sweeney asked Musk to add “an extra ‘0’” to that number, but to this day, the tracking account remains.

Employers look for new ways to recruit as aging workers contribute to ongoing labour shortage

Sarah Bridge & Ioanna Roumeliotis - TODAY - CBC

Lee Valley Tools put up a recruitment sign outside its headquarters in Ottawa a few months ago with a line reflecting a corporate shift: "No Experience Needed."

The company, which has retail stores across Canada, as well as an Ottawa-based manufacturing arm that builds its tools, desperately needed staff.

Known for attracting older workers on the retail side, Lee Valley had seen a wave of retirements during COVID-19. But with demand up for its products as people embraced hobbies like gardening and woodworking during the pandemic, CEO Jason Tasse initially resorted to hiring members of a local lacrosse team he coaches to fill orders.

As restrictions lifted, the company decided on a long-term strategy. They would pay more, offer better benefits, increase flexibility around shifts and invest in training those whose skills were not yet developed in the areas required.

"We abandoned most traditional hiring practices and protocols," said Tasse. In the past, they would tell prospective employees what kind of schedule to expect, along with requiring specific skills and references. Now, Tasse said, "all of that was out the window."

Similar conversations are happening at organizations across Canada, according to Bank of Montreal senior economist Robert Kavcic, with companies in many sectors reworking their hiring practices as they face high post-lockdown demand for services and a tight labour market.



BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic says retirements are the single biggest factor contributing to the labour shortage in Canada.© Sarah Bridge/CBC

Kavcic said labour participation "is pretty much back to where it was pre-COVID, if not higher, across every age category. So, it's not a case of people not wanting to work."

Kavcic acknowledges there are a number of different reasons behind the labour crunch, but the single biggest factor, he said, is that Canada's boomer generation has started to retire en masse. Pandemic working conditions and a strong stock market may have incentivized some people to leave earlier than planned, he said, "but whether it was now or over the next few years, this was something that was coming anyway."

Indeed, more than 300,000 Canadians have already retired so far in 2022, according to Statistics Canada — up from 233,000 last year. What's more, the number of people nearing retirement age is higher than ever before, with around one in five Canadians of working age between 55 and 64 years old. With the average age of retirement sitting at 64, that means many more Canadians are set to leave their jobs.

Even employers who haven't seen big numbers of retirements happen yet are beginning to plan ahead.

Recruiting via TikTok and Instagram

With increases in condominium and other building projects, the City of Toronto needs engineers, city planners and other workers now.

Last month, the municipality ran a recruitment drive, pushing out videos on TikTok and Instagram, calling for applicants for roles at Toronto Water in areas such as wastewater treatment.


The City of Toronto needs workers now, like these engineers, to help keep up with city building projects, but it is also looking ahead to looming retirements.

© Ousama Farag/CBC

Gord Mitchell, who runs the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant in the Beaches neighbourhood, said retirement numbers have remained minimal at his location so far.

"But, you know, you see the oncoming tsunami," he said.

"We have a lot of staff over 30 years of service, maybe 35. Luckily it's a great place to work [and] people don't want to leave," he said, "but sooner or later everyone leaves."

City spokesperson Brad Ross said upcoming retirements are always top of mind these days.

"People are going to retire, people are going to move. So we need to continue to keep that pipeline open," he said.

Other strategies

Beyond the recruitment drive on social media, he said, the city has implemented other strategies to attract and retain new workers.

Those include partnering with local universities to hire engineering graduates and tapping into underemployed populations by working with non-profit agencies that focus on inclusive hiring, anything to "attract younger new talent who would be willing to then stay and then grow in the organization," Ross said.

Back at Lee Valley, Tasse said their new hiring policies have helped attract 232 new employees over the past year — a number that is helping them expand operations.

On the retail side, flexible work options and increased wages have even allowed the stores to attract some individuals who have recently retired from other organizations.

Offering "people opportunities to come back on their own terms" while aligning with their personal interests around tools, Tasse said, means retiring boomers are actually "a good match" for the company.

With the economy expected to cool in the coming months, Kavcic said the intensity of the competition around jobs in Canada could lessen. But with the country's population continuing to age, retirements are all but guaranteed to continue to climb.

Huge Study Details How The Pandemic Fundamentally Changed People's Personalities


Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, personality-typing giant Truity collected anonymous data for a two-year-long study that would make bold assertions about the pandemic's impacts on users' psychology and personalities.


A crowd with masks on© blvdone/Shutterstock

Truity's CEO Molly Owens, a personality researcher who has previously spoken to The List about the Enneagram personality typing system, reflected on the study's findings and what they might mean for our post-pandemic personalities. "Thanks to what we believe to be the largest dataset of Big Five scores ever collected," Owens shared, "we were able to identify some fascinating shifts in personality measures over the course of the pandemic."

Owens understands the mass trauma of a global pandemic as influential on a deeper level, moreso than everyday interactions or social influences. "Although we typically understand personality as something that is relatively fixed for any given person, research also indicates that environmental forces can shift our behaviors and beliefs."

The study ultimately gave experts answers to what traits the sampled population -- which included 2.8 million users -- exhibited in increased or decreased increments in direct proportion to the pandemic's worsening or improving death toll and hospitalization numbers, available via the COVID-19 Tracking Project.

Oddly enough, the classic answers to "How has the pandemic changed you?" aren't necessarily backed up by the study's findings. Truity's CMO Abby Lunardini summed up that, "Contrary to popular anecdotal feedback about people becoming more Introverted during the pandemic, the relationship between extraversion and pandemic trends were in general found to be statistically insignificant." So, what did this study find?

Some Personality Changes Can Be Linked To Burnout


A tired nurse© Supamotion/Shutterstock

The study's measured personality traits included conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness, which its collaborators provided definitions for in order to nail down just what had changed in participants' personalities and approaches to their lives. The full study can be found on PsyArXiv, and its author Cameron Berg has given The List their perspective on its findings.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has exhibited significant psychological and behavioral impacts, but a precise account of the way that the pandemic has altered human personality is still uncertain," the researcher began. "We saw striking correlations between pandemic data and personality traits -- including the fact that individuals have steadily grown less conscientious and more neurotic over time since the beginning of the pandemic."

The study's definition for conscientiousness is as follows: "Conscientiousness is associated with achievement-striving and industrious behavior," via Abby Lunardini, Truity CMO. The study's results concluded that a mass decrease in this trait supports the case that burnout is, indeed, a looming risk in times of increased stress and over-work.

Researchers also found an increase in neuroticism that had a positive correlation to worsening pandemic factors, such as rising hospitalizations and death tolls. The study defined neuroticism as "a person's sensitivity to negative emotions, including fear, sadness and anxiety," per Truity. The source continued, "Neuroticism scores increased most strongly in response to longer-term, cumulative worsening of the pandemic (e.g. cumulative COVID deaths). The finding provides empirical support for widespread reports of the emotional exhaustion and long-term stress that many associate with the pandemic, particularly with respect to health-related risk-taking."

Creativity Took A Hit During The Worst Of The Pandemic


A man in a mask on the computer© illpaxphotomatic/Shutterstock

The study also measured levels of agreeableness in participants, which were sourced anonymously from Truity. The definition used by the platform was as follows: "Agreeableness roughly describes the extent to which a person prioritizes the needs of others over their own," via Abby Lunardini, Truity CMO.

This trait was seen to increase most during shorter-term worsened pandemic conditions. That included hospitalization spikes, which the study characterized as a transient factor, or one that could change quickly. An increase might have manifested in more community-based efforts, such as supporting healthcare workers or sourcing equipment or funding, which Truity deems the "we're-all-in-this-together mentality" that requires agreeableness to function.

Openness is the last reported measure of personality change in the study. "Openness roughly describes a person's motivation to think abstractly and pursue beauty in things like art, music and culture," our source from Truity shared. "During these same challenging periods, people appear to have been significantly less motivated to be creative, exploratory and beauty-seeking."

Though we've heard stories of incredible artistic accomplishments during the pandemic -- Taylor Swift releasing her surprise album, "Folklore," in August 2020, for example -- for the most part, the study reflected a resistance to openness, or the "cerebral" quality necessary for artistic exploration and experimentation. But in moments when the pandemic improved, there was a measurable increase in openness, supporting the theory that a fight-or-flight pandemic response wasn't conducive to creativity or artistic thinking.

Our Post-Pandemic Challenges Aren't All In Our Heads


Multiple heads© Black Salmon/Shutterstock

Ultimately, our source from Truity shared that data from this study, in conjunction with COVID-19 data, has far-reaching applications in measuring the psychological changes we have experienced during the pandemic. "Machine learning regression models indicate that metrics of the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to explain roughly half of the personality changes exhibited over the course of the pandemic," Truity's Abby Lunardini shared.

Of course, there will always be lingering questions surrounding how a globally shared trauma and unimaginable death toll will impact our psyches in the long-term, as well as our relationships with family and friends. However, the research happening now will begin giving us the answers to just how much the past two years have changed us collectively. Cameron Berg, the study's lead researcher concluded, "These findings are among the first to suggest that, at the population level, specific periods of the COVID-19 pandemic exhibited measurable and durable impacts on human personality."

Truity's CEO Molly Owens also summarized the data's findings that acute changes in the pandemic have had a measurable impact on personality factors including conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness. "What we have seen with this research is that the pandemic has actually done this at the population level -- making people less resilient to stress and less likely to engage in organized, goal-directed behaviors."

So, when we reflect on the past two years and the ways we have and haven't recovered our old selves, there will be an increasing amount of data to support us.

US government tells Arizona to remove border containers


 Border Patrol agents patrol along a line of shipping containers stacked near the border on Aug. 23, 2022, near Yuma, Ariz. The Cocopah Indian Tribe is welcoming the federal government's call for the state of Arizona to remove a series of double-stacked shipping containers placed along the U.S.-Mexico border near the desert city of Yuma, saying they are unauthorized and violate U.S. law.

 (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)




ANITA SNOW
Mon, October 17, 2022 


PHOENIX (AP) — The federal government i demanding the state remove double-stacked shipping containers placed to fill gaps in the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying they are unauthorized and violate U.S. law.

The Cocopah Indian Tribe in southwestern Arizona welcomed the call to take down the containers in the latest rift between the Biden administration and Republican-led border states over how to prevent illegal border crossings.

The Bureau of Reclamation also demanded in last week's letter that no new containers be placed. It said the bureau wants to prevent conflicts with two federal contracts that have been awarded and two more still pending to fill border wall gaps near the Morelos Dam in the Yuma, Arizona, area.

“The unauthorized placement of those containers constitutes a violation of federal law and is a trespass against the United States,” the letter states. “That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission.”

There was no immediate response Monday from Republican Gov. Doug Ducey's office, but it said in the past it would remove the containers if the U.S. government starts construction to fill the gaps.

The tribe complained last month that the state of Arizona acted against its wishes by placing 42 of the double stacks on its land near Yuma to halt illegal border crossings in an area that has become a major entry point for migrants.

“We believe the Bureau is taking the necessary and appropriate action to resolve this issue," the Cocopah tribe said in a statement distributed Monday. "Beyond that, we will continue working side-by-side with local, state and federal law enforcement on securing the border.”

Ducey ordered installation of more than 100 double-stacked containers that were placed over the summer, saying he couldn't wait for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to award the contracts it had announced for work to fill the gaps in the border wall in the Yuma area.

Migrants nevertheless have continued to avoid the recently erected barriers by going around them, including through the Cocopah Indian Reservation.

The border wall promoted by former President Donald Trump continues to be a potent issue for Republican politicians hoping to show their support for border security.

President Joe Biden halted wall construction his first day in office, leaving billions of dollars of work unfinished but still under contract. Trump worked at the end of his term to reach more than 450 miles (720 kilometers), nearly a quarter of the border.

The Biden administration has made a few exceptions for small projects at areas deemed unsafe for people to cross, including the gaps near Yuma.

The quibble over the containers close to Yuma underscores the obstacles faced when constructing barriers on the southern U.S. border. Building on tribal land, including in the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona, can face opposition. Landowners, especially in Texas, where much property is privately owned, also can refuse to sign off on construction.

Ducey, like fellow Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, has often sparred with the Democratic administration over immigration policies. Both states in recent months have been offering free bus rides to the East Coast for asylum seekers who are released in the United States to pursue their cases.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has arranged private flights of Venezuelans from San Antonio, Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

“Arizona did the job the federal government has failed to do — and we showed them just how quickly and efficiently the border can be made more secure — if you want to,” Ducey said when the containers were installed in southern Arizona.

___

AP writer Elliot Spagat contributed reporting from San Diego.

UN ‘deeply distressed’ by discovery of 92 naked migrants at Greece-Turkey border

UN ‘deeply distressed’ by discovery of 92 naked migrants at Greece-Turkey border

Shweta Sharma
Mon, October 17, 2022

The UN has condemned the “cruel” and “degrading” treatment of 92 naked migrants found at the border shared by Greece and Turkey as the countries traded accusations over the plight of the men.

As many as 92 men, found naked and some bearing injuries, were rescued by Greek police close to the northern border with Turkey on Friday.

EU border agency Frontex found evidence that the migrants – mostly Syrians and Afghans – had crossed the Evros river from Turkey into Greece in rubber dinghies, Greek police said.

“The Frontex officers reported that the migrants were found almost naked and some of them with visible injuries,” said Paulina Bakula, spokeswoman for the organisation.

Greek authorities said they gave clothes, first aid and food to the man whose circumstances Greece’s ministry of civil protection said sent an “inhuman image”.

The UN refugee agency said it was “deeply distressed” by the shocking reports and demanded a full investigation into the incident.

“UNHCR is deeply distressed by the shocking reports and images of 92 people, who were reported to have been found at the Greek-Turkish land border, stripped of their clothes,” the UN agency said.

“We condemn such cruel and degrading treatment and call for a full investigation into this incident.”

File photo: An Afghan migrant at temporary shelter on the island of Kythira, southern Greece after a boat carrying migrants capsized, leaving 20 dead and sevaral missing (AP)

The migrants reportedly told Greek police and Frontex officers that they were allegedly forced by Turkish authorities to board three vehicles and taken to the border. They testified that they were “forced to strip naked before boarding,” police said.

Athens and Ankara traded accusations, blaming each other for the incident in the latest row between the neighbours over migration.

“Turkey’s provocative behaviour exceeded all limits,” Greece’s ministry of asylum and migration said on Saturday.

Sharing the blurred pictures of dozens of stark naked men, Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi said Turkey’s behaviour was a “shame for civilisation”.

“We expect Ankara to investigate the incident and protect at last, its borders with the EU.”

Greek minister for civil protection Takis Theodorikakos said: “One would expect a working explanation from the Turkish government’s side.”

The dispute escalated to the level that it prompted a response from the Turkish president’s office.

“The Greek machine of fake news is back at work,” president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s top press aide Fahrettin Altun said in a series of tweets.

He blasted Greece for sharing the picture of already “oppressed people” while denying “groundless and unfounded accusations”.

“With these futile and frivolous efforts, Greece once again showed the whole world that it does not even respect the dignity of these oppressed people, by publishing the photographs of the refugees it has deported, extorting their personal belongings,” he said.

Greece was at the frontline of the 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, when more than 1.3 million people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan came to the continent to escape war and persecution.

It led to an EU-Turkey migration deal in which Ankara agreed to contain the flow of migrants into Europe in exchange for €6bn (£5.2bn) in funds.

The discovery of the migrants comes a day after a leaked report revealed that an EU agency had slammed senior officials at Frontex for allegedly covering up illegal pushbacks of migrants by Greece to Turkey, a claim denied by Athens.

Greek authorities have said there is an increase in attempts to cross the Aegean Sea that divides the two nations and urged Ankara to respect the 2016 migration deal with the EU. The country said it will also extend a 40km fence along its northern border with Turkey to stop illegal migration, Mr Theodorikakos said.

EXPROPRIATE CAPITALI$M

Soaring Dollar Leaves Food Piled Up in Ports as World Hunger Grows

Agnieszka de Sousa, Ekow Dontoh and Ismail Dilawar
Sun, October 16, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- Food importers from Africa to Asia are scrambling for dollars to pay their bills as a surge in the US currency drives prices even higher for countries already facing a historic global food crisis.

In Ghana, importers are warning about shortages in the run up to Christmas. Thousands of containers loaded with food recently piled up at ports in Pakistan, while private bakers in Egypt raised bread prices after some flour mills ran out of wheat because it was stranded at customs.

Around the world, countries that rely on food imports are grappling with a destructive combination of high interest rates, a soaring dollar and elevated commodity prices, eroding their power to pay for goods that are typically priced in the greenback. Dwindling foreign-currency reserves in many cases has reduced access to dollars, and banks are slow in releasing payments.

Read: Biden Brushes Off Risks of Strong Dollar on Global Economy

“They cannot afford it, they cannot pay for these commodities,” said Alex Sanfeliu, world trading head for crop giant Cargill Inc. “It’s happening in many parts of the world.”

The problem isn’t a new one for many of the countries — nor is it limited to agricultural commodities — but the reduced purchasing power and dollar shortages are compounding wider strains across global food systems following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The International Monetary Fund has warned of a catastrophe at least as severe as the food emergency in 2007-08, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for more food aid for the most vulnerable, while the World Food Programme says the globe is facing its largest food crisis in modern history.

On the ground, many importers are struggling with rising costs, shrinking capital and difficulty in obtaining dollars to ensure their shipments are released from customs on time. That means cargoes get stuck at ports or may even be diverted to other destinations.

“There was always a historical strain on making these payments, but at the moment it’s unbearable pressure,” said Tedd George, a consultant specializing in Africa and commodities markets.

In Ghana, where the cedi has lost about 44% this year against the dollar — making it the second-worst-performing currency in the world — there are already worries about supplies ahead of Christmas.

“We think there is going to be a shortage of some food items,” said Samson Asaki Awingobit, executive secretary of Ghana’s importers and exporters association which includes buyers of grains, flour and rice. “The dollar is swallowing our cedi and we are in a hopeless situation.”

To be sure, some countries may be cushioned by their purchases in other currencies like euros, while energy-exporting nations will profit from overseas revenues. Global food-commodity costs have also fallen for six straight months, giving hopes for a relief to consumers.

But the soaring dollar threatens to erode some of that benefit, according to Monika Tothova, an economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, which sees this year’s global food import bill at a record high.

The situation is still fragile. Concerns are mounting anew over supplies out of the Black Sea region as the war in Ukraine escalates and there are questions over the future of the deal to ship grains out of Ukrainian ports. Weather shocks have driven volatility in recent months, stocks are low and soaring fertilizer and energy prices are boosting food production costs.

As the Federal Reserve continues to tighten monetary policy, the dollar’s strength versus currencies in emerging and developing markets will add to inflation and debt pressures, the IMF said in its global outlook this week.

In flood-ravaged Pakistan, government moves to prevent foreign-exchange outflows meant that containers holding food like chickpeas and other pulses piled up at ports last month, sending prices surging, according to Muzzammil Rauf Chappal, the chairman of the Cereal Association of Pakistan.

The situation eased after the appointment of new finance minister who pledged to clear pending transactions for businesses that have been delayed because of a dollar shortage in its interbank market.

“The situation was quite dangerous,” said Chappal, whose company is the country’s biggest private sector wheat importer. “We were expecting the country to face a serious grain crisis.”

In Egypt, one of the world’s top wheat importers, shortages have plagued private sector mills that supply flour for bread that isn’t part of the country’s subsidy program.

About 80% of millers have run out of wheat and stopped operations as some 700,000 tons of grain remain stuck at the country’s ports since the start of last month, according to the Chamber of Cereal Industry. The supply ministry said Wednesday it would provide wheat and flour to private sector mills and pasta factories.

Cargill’s Sanfeliu said he expects global wheat trade flow to shrink by as much as 6% in the upcoming months, with corn and soybean meal flows dropping by as much as 3%, as developing countries struggle to pay for food and animal feed.

In Bangladesh, business conglomerate Meghna Group of Industries may have to cut the amount of wheat it had planned to import before the war broke out amid at least a 20% jump in wheat import costs due to the stronger dollar, said Taslim Shahriar, the company’s procurement official.

“Currency fluctuations are creating huge losses for the company,” said Shahriar. “We have never seen this before.”

OF MICE AND MEN
Pope extends reform process for year amid apathy, criticism



Vatican PopePope Francis leaves his studio's window overlooking St. Peter's Square at the end of the Angelus noon prayer at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022.

(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)



NICOLE WINFIELD
Sun, October 16, 2022

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has decided to extend by a year a lengthy global consultation of ordinary Catholics about the future of the Catholic Church, amid limited participation by the laity and seeming resistance to his reforms from the hierarchy.

Francis announced Sunday that the planned 2023 gathering of bishops would now take place in two stages — one session in October 2023 and a second in October 2024 — to allow more time to find a way forward.

Francis in 2021 formally opened a two-year consultation process on the topic of “synodality,” or a more decentralized structure of the church with the laity having a greater role. The process is part of Francis’ long-term goal of making the church more inclusive, participatory and responsive to real-world issues facing ordinary Catholics.

As part of the process, the Vatican asked dioceses, religious orders and other Catholic groups to embark on local listening sessions so ordinary Catholics could talk about their needs and hopes for the church. Bishops conferences in August reported back the results, and an organizing committee recently met near Rome and completed a synthesis document.

But several dioceses and bishops conferences reported minimal participation. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example, reported 700,000 people participated in the consultation, in a country of 66.8 million Catholics. Many European countries also reported participation rates below 10%.

In addition, many of Francis' opponents have scoffed at the entire initiative. A leading critic and former Vatican official, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller of Germany, recently warned that it represented a “hostile takeover” of the church. Others have pointed to a similar consultation process underway in Germany that has badly divided the church, amid debate on hot-button issues such as sexual morality, women in leadership roles and the church's treatment of LGBTQ Catholics.

Announcing the yearlong extension Sunday, Francis said the fruits of this first phase had been many “but in order to reach a full maturity, it’s necessary that we not rush things.” Adding in another year, he said, would allow for a “more extended discernment.”

“I trust that this decision will lead to an understanding of synodality as a constitutive dimension of the church, and to help everyone live it as a path of brothers and sisters who offer witness to the joy of the Gospel," Francis said in his noon blessing overlooking St. Peter's Square.

Already, the Vatican office organizing the meeting had extended by several months the deadline to let ordinary dioceses and bishops conferences report back. That office said Sunday the decision to extend the whole process by another year would “foster more mature reflection for the greater good of the church.”

It's not the first time that Francis has split a synod meeting up into two sessions, with a year of breathing room in between them. He did that for his synod on the family, which took place over the course of two sessions in 2014 and 2015, and resulted in his 2016 document that opened the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion.

Twitter Critics Explode Over Trump's Threat To Jews To Be More Grateful To Him Or Else

Mary Papenfuss

Sun, October 16, 2022 

Donald Trump critics had a meltdown on Twitter Sunday after the former president warned Jews to be “more appreciative” of him before it’s “too late.”

Trump posted the startling message Sunday morning on Truth Social.

“No President has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.,” he railed.

Trump also wildly claimed that he was so popular in Israel that he could become the nation’s prime minister.

“We’ve been menaced by fascists before, you two-bit goon,” tweeted commentator and author David Rothkopf in response. “We recognize the threat you represent from the darkest pages of our history. That’s why we’ll never submit to your threats.”

But as for any response from Trump’s Republican Party: Crickets.

Most critics were dumbfounded that Trump would expect gratitude from American Jews given his backing for neo-Nazis and his supporters’ drive to turn the U.S. into a Christian nation.

Trump previously alienated Americans when he tried a similar stunt earlier to strong-arm Jewish voters in a 2019 speech at the Israeli American Council National Summit in Florida.

“A lot of you are in the real estate business because I know you very well,” Trump said then. “You’re brutal killers, not nice people at all. But you have to vote for me, you have no choice.”

Critics were particularly furious about Trump’s “before it’s too late” warning. Many viewed it as a threat to again spur his white supremacist mob into violence if he doesn’t get his way.

Former National Security Council member and retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — who testified against Trump in the first impeachment investigation against him — characterized the warning as “executing the fascist playbook to turn his mob on Jews.”

Harvard University constitutional expert Lawrence Tribe called the message blatantly antisemitic. He reminded Americans that Trump reportedly kept a copy of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) next to his bed for several years, adding: “If it quacks like a duck ....”

Countless other tweets were eviscerating.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.